People who say they have “seen” Jesus’ face should be regarded with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Yet doesn’t he tell us all to do just that?

He says we are supposed to look for him everywhere—in the light and in the truth and in the faces of others.

Sometimes we need him so much that we are driven to seeking his face, like young loves do or shipwrecked sailors do, clinging to shards of boat in an endless ocean.

Throughout my life I have sought Jesus in pain and grief and loneliness. I sought him because I needed him to get me through.

But there is something more now—a sense of urgency and expectation.

Jesus is coming back soon.

Seek his face

https://www.christianpost.com/news/detroit-pistons-player-says-jesus-is-coming-back.html

Psalm 95:1-11 KJV
[1] O come, let us sing unto the Lord : let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. [2] Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. [3] For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. [4] In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also. [5] The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land. [6] O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker. [7] For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, [8] Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: [9] When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. [10] Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: [11] Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.

I just read this—

https://www.christianpost.com/news/priest-shaken-after-fake-funeral-with-paid-actors.html

I can understand why the pastor stopped the funeral, but it seems like a missed opportunity.

After all, we all have the same eulogy. Why not give it?

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to mourn a human. All of us live our lives with a certain amount of illusion regarding our autonomy, our choices, and the significance of our individual accomplishments.

In fact, little of that matters and none of it matters after we are gone.

What matters is Who we trusted with our lives. There is only one person in recorded history who can make a difference to a person at the point of death and beyond and that person is Jesus.

Jesus promised us all eternal life

His life for ours

His ransom for our sins.

If you don’t know Jesus and haven’t let him have your questions, doubts, sins, and lies, then ask him now—

Ask him if he is real

Then let his realness change everything.

John 3

Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s willingness to stay in Germany and face Nazi oppression has anchored me when I have faced lesser challenges.

I told myself, if Bonhoeffer could face Hitler, imprisonment, and death, I can face x.

When Navalny returned to Russia, I thought, Bonhoeffer.

I am in mourning. I am angry and deeply grieved. For myself, for my family, for his family, for Russia, and for the world—when men like Navalny are murdered, we all lose light.

Is there anyone now brave enough to replace him?

“Greater love has no man, than he lays down his life for his friend.”

—Jesus

Isaiah 64:1-12 KJV
[1] Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence, [2] As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence! [3] When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence. [4] For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. [5] Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved. [6] But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. [7] And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities. [8] But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand. [9] Be not wroth very sore, O Lord, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people. [10] Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. [11] Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste. [12] Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O Lord ? wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?

She would be frumpy, unassuming, and decidedly middle aged (like me) and she would be leaving her mid-century modern home around mid-morning to go to the local Safeway.

She would leave the letter on the Formica counter top as a precaution.

She would expect to be back, but

The letter would say this nonetheless—

Dearest,

You have put up with both my chatter and doomsday predictions for so long, so what is one more note on the countertop? Keep this safe until you need it. Read it then.

The world is increasingly fragile and weirdly prophetic scenes have already played out before us—

So

I have left both iodine and chlorine tablets in the medicine cabinet. Plenty of duct tape for the basement windows. There is a small solar panel and battery pack. And I will buy things which can be stored and saved like peanut butter, shelf-stable staples, dried legumes.

Let the trees grow wild. We will need the shade, the fuel, the oxygen.

Wind up flashlight/ wind up radio.

And keep track of the family Bible. I know it is tempting to rely on the phone app, but when disruptions come, you will need a Way through—

The shema. Jesus’ injunction to call on his name to be saved.

Matthew 24:4-8 KJV
[4] And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. [5] For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. [6] And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. [7] For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. [8] All these are the beginning of sorrows.